Stilettos, Stoli & Scribbles ~ Served With A Twist

I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. Really. And ice cream is not a weakness of mine. Cross my heart. Still, I do have the tiniest hankering for salted caramel anything. So, when I saw this Epicurious recipe for No-churn Salted Caramel Ice Cream AND it only has three ingredients, I had to try it. Oh, my God.

I ate this so you don’t have to.

Now, as easy as this is, it does take all day from start to melting on your spoon, so plan accordingly. There is a trade off for the “no-churn” part of this enterprise.

The starting point is making the dulce de leche, possibly the most delicious thing ever invented from sweetened condensed milk. So easy – just simmer an unopened can of sweetened condensed milk, submerged in water and covered, for two hours.* Hint: remove the label as it will come off during the simmering anyway and the glue leaves a stubborn residue. Let the can cool completely, then open it and let it cool some more. Hint: you can put the can in a bowl of ice water and put it in the refrigerator to speed up this stage.

Perfectly caramel colored and flavored. Oh, my dears. You’ll be tempted to just eat it right out of the can, but do try to resist. It’s worth the deferred gratification (and you can lick the little bits left in the can when you’re making the ice cream — 😉 ).

In a large bowl, I whisked the tiniest bit of salt (1/4 teaspoon of Kosher salt because I didn’t have flaky sea salt) into the dulce de leche, all the while thinking, “This cannot be enough salt. I love salt!” Happy ending: It was enough salt.

To get the heavy whipping cream really cold, I put it in the freezer for about 10 minutes, then whipped it to stiff peak stage. You stir about a third of it into the salted dulce de leche – just until it’s combined. I used the whisk. Then gently fold the rest of the whipped cream into it. Again, just until it’s all combined and you don’t see any little floating islands of whipped cream. Hint: be sure to scrape all the thick dulce de leche off the bottom of the bowl while you’re folding.

Then, just pour it into a 9×5” loaf pan, cover with plastic and freeze it for at least six hours. Et voilà! Better than Häagen-Dazs. Probably more fattening, too, but I don’t care. OOOH! Can you imagine this with toasted pecans??!! Next time.

Do you have a sweet tooth? What’s your favorite indulgence? Are you a hard-core, must churn ice cream fan? Or, like me, do you like the easy and decadent path to sinning?

*One reviewer on the Epicurious website simmered the can of sweetened condensed milk in a slow cooker overnight and that worked, too, so if you have the time and want to not keep an eye on the water level for two hours, this might be a good approach for you.